1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to the field of electronic communication between computers. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to a method for trusted electronic communication through shared vulnerability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computers and computer networks are increasingly used for conducting electronic commerce and other types of transactions. During these transactions, computers frequently request services from one another. As can be appreciated, when a computer system grants access to services or features to another system, it may leave itself susceptible to exploitation. Such exploitation can include crashing the system, hogging system resources to the exclusion of others, or performing other malicious or unwanted actions. In fact, such access may allow a malicious system to exploit vulnerabilities previously unknown or unavailable to the malicious system. In other words, malicious computers can exploit the access granted by a server.
In order to facilitate electronic commerce and other types of transactions, computers need to communicate with one another in a trusted manner. Especially in cases where the information is of a sensitive nature or where the communication provides access which makes the service provider vulnerable, it may be necessary for a service provider to avoid communicating with an untrusted computer, unless the untrusted computer can establish to the satisfaction of the service provider that the service provider can trust the untrusted computer. For example, if a server at a banking institution (the service provider) is providing access (critical access to its system) to a banking program at a user's computer (the untrusted system) by which banking transactions can be conducted, the server may demand to have some assurance that the untrusted system can be trusted to access the server in a manner that is agreeable to the bank.